Lecture One: Introduction To The New Testament
A. Basic Facts About The Bible
66 books, written by 40 different authors over 1500 years
39 O.T. “old” = 3 letters, “testament” 9… 3—9--39
27 N.T. “new” = 3 letters, “testament” 9
blessings multiplied 3x9 = 27
B. How did we get the Bible we have today? The O.T. was preserved through the Nation of Israel/Judah to the time of Jesus. The Septuagint (3rd century BC) is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture & the primary text in 1st century Israel. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 provided important archaeological verification of the O.T.
How was the N.T. put together? The books of the N.T., were written within 30-60 years after Jesus was raised from the dead & ascended to Heaven. First Century Israel was primarily an oral culture. Scholars estimate that 3-5% of the people could read & write. Teaching at first was oral, but the early Church leaders realized a written record would be needed for future generations. There were 3 criteria used to determine if a document should be in the Bible.
1. Apostolic Origin: Is the document directly connected to one of the Apostles? A document had to have been written by an Apostle, or a close associate of an Apostle or Jesus. Matthew & John were Apostles & eyewitnesses of the events they record in their Gospels; Peter & Paul were also Apostles; Mark an associate of Peter; Luke an associate of Paul; James & Jude brothers of Jesus.
2. Doctrinal consistency. Are these documents consistent with the teachings of Jesus & the Apostles? Acts 2:42 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching & to fellowship, to the breaking of bread & to prayer.”
3. Historical Acknowledgement. Do the documents have ...
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... the Great was appointed governor of Judea and ruled from 37 to 4 B.C. Jesus was born during Herod’s reign.
4 words help us link together the whole of God’s Word.
Preparation: In O.T. God prepared humanity for Messiah.
Revelation: In the four Gospels God revealed Messiah—Jesus of Nazareth, the Only Begotten Son of God. Jesus entered the world, died for humanity, & was raised back to life.
Action: In Acts & Epistles God puts into action His plan to redeem humanity through Jesus. The Church universal is begun, the Gospel is preached, individual churches are established throughout the Roman Empire, and Christians are instructed how to live as new creations of God.
Completion: In the Book of Revelation, the outcome of God’s perfect plan is revealed. Satan is defeated, sinners are judged, believers are rewarded, & Jesus reigns forever as King of Kings.
In the Bible’s New Testaments the book of Acts is of Narrative genre and is also called the Acts of the Apostles. It is written by Luke who happens to be the author of Gospel of Luke. This book tells a story of first Christians. After the death of Jesus (as mention in “Matthew”) as he went to heaven the Christians waited in Jerusalem. After Holy Spirits were sent by God, the first Christians were given the power by them. And they end up telling the people about Jesus. It was the Christians who explained t...
The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.
With possibly fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament, and no less than seven attributed to him, the Apostle Paul of Tarsus undoubtedly altered and continues to alter the course of Christianity. Through his extensive mission work, preaching, and letter writing, Paul has left behind an immense legacy that few people in history can compare to. To this day, some two thousand years later, Paul and his writings are extensively researched, discussed, and debated across all of Christianity and much of the non-Christian world. For most practicing Christians, Paul’s teachings from his letters hold extreme weight and significance in their attempt to follow the teachings and life of Jesus in conjunction with the Bible. One such writing of Paul’s that was canonized into the Bible is his letter to the church at Philippi. This work will serve as an introduction to the Pauline epistle of Philippians.
Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
It was deemed that the books of the New Testament that are authentically apostolic in nature were included in the Bible. This strict appraisal process used by the church fathers to determine the legitimacy of certain books in the bible is the reason why scripture, once it becomes part of church canon it is incorruptible. Furthermore, because tradition stems from scriptural interpretation that it can be corruptible as it relies on the judgment of human beings, whose interpretations may be driven by internal
The Bible can largely be divided into two parts: the Old and New Testament; it is said that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic language and the New one in Greek originally. And since at first it was written for being recited or spoken aside, the 66 books are still sorted as chapters and verses. Commonly, people consider the Bible as a prose (or novel, for some). Yet, the primitive form of a poem actually can be seen in the Bible, the origin of the ancient Hebrew
The Old Testament of the Bible, which includes the Book of Genesis, was also passed down through oral tradition before the Hebrews wrote it down from 1000-300 B.C. Both of these documents express the religious attitudes of these people as their story of the creation of the world and of humankind unfolds.
The study of the Gospel of John can be viewed as distinct and separate from the study of any of the previous three synoptic gospels. The Fourth Gospel contains language and conceptions so distinct from the synoptics that scholars are often faced with the question of its historical origins. Originally, scholars believed the main source for the Gospel of John to be Jewish wisdom literature, Philo, the Hermetic books and the Mandaean writings, leading to the idea that John was the most Greek of the Gospels. However, with the discovery of the scrolls, scholars were now faced with source materials, remarkably similar to the concepts and language found in John, illuminating the literature as not only Jewish but Palestinian in origin. The discovery of the manuscripts opened up an entirely new interpretation of the gospel of John and a progressive understanding of its proper place within biblical scripture.
The Book of Acts was written to provide a history of the early church. Acts emphasis the importance of the day of Pentecost and being empowered to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Acts sheds light on the ministry gift of the Holy Spirit, which empowers, guides, teaches, and serves as our Counselor. When reading the Book of Acts many of the readers will be enlightened and encouraged by the many miracles that were being performed during this time by the disciples Peter, John, and Paul. The Book of Acts emphasizes the importance of obedience to God’s Word and the transformation that occurs as a result of knowing Christ. There are also many references to those that rejected the truth that the disciples preached about in Jesus Christ. Power, greed, and many other vices of the devil or evidenced in the book of Acts. Acts 1:8 serves as a good summary of the Book of Acts. Acts records the apostles being Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the surrounding world.
Bauer & Johannes, 1970, p.64). As a bonus his death not only offers redemption for mankind but also introduces the aspect of new life. Starting over and new life is not an aspect discussed in the Old Testament. Finally despite the perfection of Christ’s redemption of mankind, believers will have to wait until the return of Christ for this particular redemption to be complete.
During early missionaries journeys the Gospel of Christ was shared first with the Jews. These early workers went into the local “synagogue and reading the Law and the Prophets” (Acts 13:15) teaching that, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the scriptures of the Messiah. Today the Law and Prophets are known as the Old Testament. The early church used these scriptures to verify the accuracy of what Peter, Paul and the rest of early church were preaching. The Jews in Berea received the word from Paul and examined the scripture daily to confirm the truth (Acts 17:10-12). These early followers of Christ set the example that today’s believers need to follow.
First major theme of the book of Acts is the work of the Holy Spirit in the apostles and the early church. Jesus appeared to his disciples and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3b-5) As they gathered together and prayed in one place, the Holy Spirit came to rest on each of them (2:1-3). The disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit boldly proclaimed God’s word and performed miracles (2:14-42, 3:1-10). Throughout the book, the author focuses on how the Holy Spirt ministers the apostles and the believers in their lives and the community.
The Urevangelium Theory by G. E. Lessing a German critic suggests that the relationships from the Gospels derived from a single Gospel written in Hebrew or Aramaic. He believed that Matthew wrote the Aramaic Gospel of the Nazarenes, the germs of which originated in the time immediately following the death of Jesus Christ. This theory of an Urevangelium has no historical support and is improbable to a high degree. (Thiessen, Introduction to the New Testament 2002:103)
The goal is to continue to reveal God firstly, define salvation, also discussed, the individual coming to God. Also coming up is a very brief description of the world and the Christian population. Fifthly, a description of the diverse